Lucy Heartfillia or Aria Willows
by bumble.bee.kawaii
Summary: Several months after Lucy's death a new person joins the guild, she has the exact same scent as Lucy but she acts completely different; the new girl's too cold and quiet. She looks completely different as well. No-one knows who she is or how she has Lucy's scent but they know that she's here for a reaon. Natsu's determined to find out all answers, but can he find something more?
1. Chapter 1

** Hi, this is chapter one of my 1st fanfic, feel free to praise or criticize me though! xp**

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**Chapter 1**

Lucy stood tall before the king, "You don't understand, I have to go back, no matter what!"

"No, I'm sorry Old Friend, the answer is still no. That is final. No matter what you say I cannot allow you to return to the Earthland," the Celestial Spirit gazed down at Lucy, "You cannot change the course of time. You must understand…"

"NO! You can't force me to stay here." She sprang forwards. "I have to go back! They still need me."

"YOU WILL NOT RETURN EARTHLAND!" He yelled ferociously. Around them the Sea of Souls rippled, its autumnal shades changing as if it were according to the Spirit King's rage. His voice softened. "Lucy, even if I did let you, you don't have a gate. You're not a Celestial Spirit, I can't let you. Even my subjects cannot enter through different gates."

"But Virgo and Loke-!"

"That's different, they have privileges."

Hot tears welled up in her eyes. "You still don't get it do you?" She sobbed, "If I don't go down there, I'll never forgive myself."

"I'm really sorry," He shook his head, "But there is nothing I can do. Going back there will upset the balance of the universe."

She scoffed, angrily. "Yeah, right." Lucy rolled her eyes, "Get real."

The Celestial Spirit King gave her a half-hearted glare. "Go back to Caelios, Old Friend and forget this foolishness." He smiled gently, "Time will heal the wounds, and here, it is plentiful."

"YOU STUPID, IDIOTIC, JERK-FACED, DOUCHE-BAG! YOU'RE A –"

He waved his hands, "Back to Caelios you go!" Her body tingled as if a thousand spiders were scampering across her skin.

Lucy threw her hand out in attempting to grab something, the tears finally spilling down her face. "Don't -!"When the door slammed shut behind her, Lucy slouched down, thinking of a way to get back. Then she perked up a bit, what the spirit king said gave her an idea. Plue, her cutest silver key spirit, was about to get a visit... more accurately it was his gate getting the visit.

Lucy had a relatively good sense of direction, her relatively good sense of direction led her to a small silver gate that had a slight glow around it. At the top it had a picture of Plue in a silver frame that had an intricate pattern snaking up it. Lucy slowly pushed open the gate, a dazzling gold light blinded her, a strong but holy force tried to push her out the gate but she stood firmly, implanting her feet to the ground. Then she heard a noise.

"_Puu! Puu! Puu!"_

_Oh no! he's found me, I'm dead!_ She thought, careful not to lose to that 'strong but holy' force turned around. " H-hey P-plue, l-l-l-long t-time no s-see, h-how are the o-others?"

He replied by going,"Puu!"

" I'm glad that you guys are doing okay. . . listen I have to tell you a secret and you can't tell anyone"

"Puu?"

" well how do I put this. . . Ireallyneedyourhelptogetback toearthland " she gasped for air an added 'cus thespiritkingwon'tletmebutIcan'ttellyouwhy." There, she said it!

Plue concentrated for a moment, which was quite rare since he wasn't one to be serious, before he turned into a large, shining white wolf that had a bright orange unicorn horn at the top of his head. "Plue, is that you?" Lucy asked.

"Puuuuuuuuuuuu, puu puuu!" said the white wolf thing in a gravelly voice. It seemed to say 'Yes, hop on!" then lucy blacked out.

When Lucy finally woke up she was greeted by a wet cheerful lick and then a bright, multi-coloured light.

"Old friend and Plue," Lucy's eyes widened, damn, they had found her and Plue so quickly! " nice to see you here…"

"Moustache man…" she said hesitantly, "I'm sorry for your trouble but you must let me stay."

The king of the Spirit World sighed, "Very well, I'll give you some of my soul plane power then. Soul Plane allows you to see a person's soul and do whatever they like with it, however since you aren't proficient with the art yet you can only: control someone's soul, break it, see if it's about to die and use it to identify what or who the souls belong to. To see the souls you must enter an alternate dimension, if the soul is red it belongs to a monster or yokai , a blue soul belongs to someone who is about to die, yellow for a mage, green for animals, pink for a non-magic person and multi-coloured for a spirit- celestial or not." He paused to take a breath. "To crush someone's soul you must simply slice your hand through it, to control it you only need to touch it. Unlike me, you cannot will the soul to come to you, you must go to it, and whilst you are moving in the alternate dimension you are also moving in this dimension." He then started chanting some unknown spell.

When he'd finished the first thing Lucy noticed was that everything was the same but different; the same because everything was still there and the same shape but different because all the colours were monotone, the only colours were two multi-coloured chi's- one belonging to the spirit king the other Plue 's. She ran her hand through her hair only to find it had grown longer, was now black and held up in pigtails.

The king laughed, "this is the alternate dimension I was talking about, it's called soul plane. As you can't be here forever, use this eye-patch and place it on your blue eye." He took out a black eye-patch and placed it on hand, patting it away.

"Blue eye? I don't have blue eyes- let alone one blue eye."

"You _didn't_ have a blue," he corrected, "But you do now!" he whipped out a small gold compact-mirror that had all the signs of the golden spirits.

Her eyes widened, her used-to-be brown eyes were gone and replaced by one, on the right, gold-ish coloured eye and, on the left, another that was a startling blue, Lucy's blue eye looked like it was on fire, blue fire- literally. The mirror was magic of course so it disappeared when it sensed that its purpose for the moment had been fulfilled. Then, after getting over the shock, she calmly placed on the eye-patch. Suddenly everything went back to normal; she was no longer in the soul plane.

"What happened?"

"That blue eye is called The Soul Eye, as soon as you take off the eye-patch you'll be in soul plane. This is where I leave you; however you can only stay here for a year. Good bye." With that the king of the spirit world vanished.

"C'mon Plue, let's get to Fairy Tail!"

"PUU! Puuu!" and with that, they strolled off in the direction of Fairy Tail.

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**chapter 2 will be up soon!**

**bumblebee. **

**x**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

As Lucy and Plue walked towards Magnolia, Lucy made a mental note to change her now-oversized clothes, which also screamed out LUCY loud and clear, she also remembered that she would have to get or make some very strong perfume in order to get past Gajeel, Wendy, and of course Natsu.

"_Natsu… what're you doing now?_" she wondered aloud but her thoughts were interrupted by Plue.

"Puuu! PUU! PUU!" Magnolia was just ahead.

At Fairy Tail

"Natsu, let's go on a job. We haven't done one since Lucy died and that was three months ago," said Lisanna.

Everyone was upset when they had heard the news of Lucy's death but they weren't as broken as Natsu. Although, Levy and Lisanna was pretty messed up to, Levy, Lucy and Lisanna became best friends in the guild! But Levy had Gajeel and Lilly, and Lisanna had Elfman and Mirajane. Even though Natsu had Happy, it still meant he had lost his one and only -would be- mate, also Happy hung out with Carla sometimes.

"Aye, you're a wreck. A simple job won't do any harm; we found one just outside of Magnolia, just picking a few magic herbs, only mages can see them when they're still in the ground and only dragon or god slayers can pick them." Happy persuaded.

"B-but we can only do jobs with the whole team; me, Lucy, you, Lisanna, Gray and Erza. But Lucy can't go."

"Natsuuu," Lisanna exclaimed, "just because Lucy isn't here physically it doesn't mean she's not here. Remember what Lucy said? She said that as long as we don't forget her, she'll always be with us in our hearts."

**_Flashback_**

_Natsu held Lucy in his arms. "L-lucy? Don't die, it's gonna be fine. You'll be okay right?" tears rolled down his face then falling on to hers._

_"It's okay, I'll be fine in here," she pointed to his chest, where his heart was, "as long as you don't forget me I'll be fine in here. So, smile Natsu, smile for me and Fairy Tail, our home!"_

_"B-but I love you,"_

_"Y-yeah," although Lucy was dying she could still blush, "I love you to but a-as lover, you know, romantically."_

_"Yeah, me to, I love you!"_

_Lucy giggled weakly, "Smile, I'll go first!" Lucy smiled Natsu's favourite smile._

_"Fine, for you then."_

**_End flashback_**

"Fine." Natsu sighed, "For her then."

Lucy and Plue

Lucy finally found the shop she was looking for; 'Gothic X1025'. Rummaging through all the clothes she settled on a black laced mini dress, a pair of gorgeous, black, mid-thigh, leather boots, a plain black cloak and a pair of black leather, fingerless gloves. Then she paid the cashier 3,000 jewels. Her next stop was the perfume shop, where she bought a heavily scented 'Roses 'n' Violets' perfume for 600 jewels, she had changed her clothes and scent back at ' Gothic X1025' .

Then with a sudden jolt she realized that she and Plue didn't have an apartment to stay in as the land lady must have rented it to someone else also taking it into account that she wouldn't fully be able to conceal her scent, it would be even more suspicious if she lived in Lucy's old apartment. _Oh well,_ she thought,_ Fairy Tail comes first_.

When Lucy finally arrived it was already dark, cautiously, using her one 'normal' eye, she peaked through the door, then -knowing from experience that if she didn't she wouldn't be heard- banged roughly on the door, she sensed that the riot had calmed due to her banging. Then Mirajane peeped her head out the door. "Would you like to join Fairy Tail?"

"Y-yes please, and this is my familiar." Lucy gestured to Plue, trying to act as calm as possible.

"Please, come in," Mira opened the door and took Lucy's cloak. " what's your name?"

"Ah-ah-aria wwwwih-Willows."(ah-ree-ah)

"And your familiar?"

"Oh, you mean Pl-aa, plaa?" (pl-aah)

"Well, let's go and see Master okay?"

"Right." The short distance from the door to Master's office seemed painstakingly slow, whilst stares bore into her back she had the sudden urge to greet everyone and hug their life out of them as well.

When they had finally reached Master's office Mira knocked on the door and let herself in, "Master, this is Willow-san, she would like to join Fairy Tail.

"Hello," she greeted, "my name is Aria Willows, pleased to meet you."

"Hello! I'm Master Makarov, welcome to Fairy Tail, this guild will be your family." He stated. " where would you like your guild insignia?"

"The back of my neck please." Mira stamped the back of her neck, Aria's insignia was a dull bluey-green.

"so aria-chan, what magic do you have?"

"cel- I mean soul plane magic," She confirmed.

"Oh, I've never heard of it!" Mira exclaimed.

"well… it's kind of hard to explain."

"Aria," Aria turned round, only to reveal master at the doorway, "Before, I show you to the rest of the guild I need to speak to in private." Master said, the stern look on his face said it all. "Mira you may go back now."

_Oh no! he's probably found out, I'm done for!_

_… … …_

Meanwhile Natsu and the others were walking back, "that was surprisingly refreshing, I haven't done a mission for ages, right Natsu!" (Lisanna loves Natsu like a sister.)

"Yeah, you're right, Lisanna."

"Aye, the most surprising thing is that Natsu didn't burn anything."

Everyone nodded.

Together they burst open the doors. "We're ba-" a very familiar and almost fully undetectable scent hit Natsu, cutting off whatever he was about to say. Gajeel eyes locked with his for a second, as did Wendy's, Natsu slowly made his way over to them.

Gajeel was the first to speak up, "A girl came in with the same scent as Lucy, but she looked completely different."

"We think she tried to mask her scent from us as she had a really strong perfume on." Wendy added. "She's joining the guild, we think."

Just then they heard- with their incredibly strong, dragon slayer hearing- master stepping up onto the stage.

"Everyone, we have a new member for Fiore's number one guild; FAIRY TAIL!"

"Hello everyone nice to meet you, my name is Aria Willows and my magic is called Soul Plane. This is my familiar, Plah." She cursed herself for speaking so fast and coldly. _Great, _she thought,_ now I have to act coldly to my friends. Well, _she corrected herself,_ my former and, hopefully, friends to be._

"pu-ah, pah!" 'Plah' quickly corrected himself.

"He says nice to meet you." Aria added, her voice still in monotone.

Natsu gazed at the girl, the only thing Aria and Lucy had in common aside from being a mage and a girl was their scent.

Everyone went up to greet her and surprisingly the first person to welcome her was Cana, "not really people are you 'eh? S'okay, Erza here's got plenty experience in that ca'egory. Oh yeah, I'm Cana by the way."

Aria fought off the temtation to say 'I know' but instead the only other thing she came up with was an, "oh," it was barely audible.

Cana unwillingly shivered at the coldness of her voice bit recovered quickly as if nothing happened.

"Hello I am Erza, how do you like Fairy Tail so far?"Erza's voice rang with authority and confidence, by now a group had gathered around her, Erza acting as the 'representative'.

"Noisy."

"I'm not surprised, by the way, I'm curious about your magic, I've never heard of 'Soul plane' before. Can you please explain it?"

Aria waved hand dismissively, "_I'm_ not surprised. The only other person I know of who has the same magic as me is the Celestial Spirit King." She answered truthfully then she went on to explain, using almost exactly the same words as the Spirit King, "Soul Plane allows me to see a person's soul and do whatever I like with it, such as; control someone's soul, break it, see if it's about to die and use it to identify what or who the souls belong to. To see the souls I must enter an alternate dimension, if the soul is red it belongs to a monster or yokai , a blue soul belongs to someone who is about to die, yellow for a mage, green for animals, pink for a non-magic person and multi-coloured for a spirit- celestial or not." She then paused to take a breath. "To crush someone's soul I must simply slice my hand through it, to control it I only need to touch it. Although unlike his majesty, the spirit king, I cannot will the soul to come to me, I must go to it, and whilst I am moving in the alternate dimension I am also moving in this dimension. If I get hurt in this alternate dimension, I get hurt in this dimension as well and vice versa."

"Whoa!"

"I'm not finished explaining yet," she said in a somewhat annoyed and cold tone. "Anyways, to get to the dimension I have something called The Soul Eye, the spirit king can change to Soul Eye whenever he wants but I always have it. As soon as I remove the eye patch I go to 'Soul plane mode' –as I call it." She said, making air quotations above her head. " Would you like a demonstration?" she asked innocently.

"That'd be good!" said Cana, she and Erza were the only ones fully recovered from the shock that such magic existed.

Aria smirked, finally showing some sort of emotion, then she asked, "so, who's gonna be my glamorous assistant?"

Nobody razed their hand, nobody but Natsu.

"I didn't think that _you_ counted as glamorous."


	3. Chapter 3

**hey guys, sorry i took so long to upload. _**

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**Chapter 3**

As soon as Aria took off her eye patch everybody gasped, Aria who was now using soul plane couldn't hear anyone but herself although she knew well enough that everyone was shocked at her different coloured eyes, especially since all their eyes were as wide as saucers. (0o0)

Aria was really nervous, it wasn't the first time she used soul plane- she practiced on some fish on the way- but it was the first time she tried it on a human. She concentrated on Natsu's yellow-y gold chi and walked towards it, then, careful not to touch anyone else's chi/soul, gently tapped it. She felt a surge of energy flow through her, she felt everything Natsu - the fish she used only had a two second memory- experienced; the joy and fun he had with Igneel, the grief and pain losing him, the happy moments after joining Fairy Tail, finding Lucy, and the numbness and darkness when he lost her- the list could go on but these were his main memories.

Then, with a sudden jolt, Aria regained her senses. "Do something Gray would do. Strip."

To everyone's surprise _Natsu_ started stripping. He was about to take off his boxers when Aria mentally commanded him to stop before it got to wild, although she didn't command him to get dressed again! She chuckled quietly to herself, imagining Natsu's face when he'd find out.

"Say that you aren't in Fairy Tail."

"I am not in Fairy Tail." Everyone gaped at Natsu, murmurs could be heard around the room.

"Pick a fight with Gray and lose," Aria whispered in his ear

"Gray!" Natsu yelled, "Fight me!" a few relieved sighs were breathed. After about five seconds Natsu had lost saying, "Wow Gray, you're a way better Mage than me, I totally lost!" at this point people had Taping Lacrimas in their hand and were recording the whole thing.

Then Aria simply snapped her fingers and placed her eye patch back on her Soul Eye. Natsu stared blankly at himself for a moment and blinked.

"What happened? And why is Gray standing on top of me?" everyone in the hall burst out laughing, "what?"

When people showed Natsu what had happened he fainted seconds later.

"Hey, Aria." It was Gray.

"Yes, what is it?" she asked in a bored voice.

"How d'you know about my stripping habit?"

_Stupid me. Stupid, stupid, stupid, idiotic me._ She thought._ Think, think, think, c'mon, uuuuuummmm. Ah! I Know! _"Gray, Gray Fullbuster, is that you? Oh my god it really is you! Don't you remember me?" Aria said. She guessed this was the right time to lose the 'cold and sly' façade.

"Uh… what? Did I know you?"

At this point Aria was spilling her best fake tears, "Y-y-y-you mmm-ean y-y-you d-d-don't r-r-remember me? A-are you r-really G-Gray F-F-Fullbuster from the village up in the North- the one Deliora destroyed? The village my parent died in?"

"I didn't know that there were any other survivors other than me though!" Gray exclaimed, feeling guilty that he didn't remember someone who was in his village- there village was a small village so everyone knew everyone, even those who weren't permanent residents.

"GRAY FULLBUSTER! GET YOUR BUTT OVER HERE! I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU MADE THE NEW GUILD MEMBER CRY. WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HER?" Gray shuddered at the sound of Erza's voice.

"It's okay *sob sob* it isn't like I lived there *sob* I only stayed there*sob sob* for a few months. *sob* my family were gipsies you see." Then Aria ran out.

"GRAAAAAAAY!"

… … …

"Great, just great! You just had to make this harder for yourself!" Aria muttered to herself. "I'm such an idiot aren't I Plue?"

"Puuuuuuu puuu pu puu puuuuuuuuuuuuu."

"Stop making excuses! I don't care whether it's acting training or not!"

"Puu Pu!"

"Do not."

"puu."

"Fine, fine, say what you like!" Aria sighed.

Just then she felt someone tap her on the shoulder, "hey Aria!" it was Cana, "Ya okay?"

Quickly she rubbed her eyes and made them look red and puffy, "y-yes, it's not like Gray was going to remember me anyways. I'm fine." She said regaining her cold and quiet façade.

"Sooo… you coming back in?" Cana asked awkwardly.

"Obviously," Aria rolled her eyes. "Baka."

As they walked through the guild doors Juvia came up to them, "you used to be friends with Gray-sama? Juvia is so jealous…" squealed Juvia, "you are now Juvia's new love rival!" she added.

"Stupid, people here have known Gray for way longer." Aria sighed, "I only knew him four three months." She added boredly.

"B-but you are still Juvia's new love rival okay?!" she exclaimed.

"Tch, whatever."

Erza, Natsu, Happy and Gray walked up to Aria, "we're re-ally sorry about Gray, he actually does remember you," he turned to Gray, "don't you Gray, Gray. GRAY!" Natsu nudged his arm a little to obviously.

"What, no I don-" Erza gave him a hard and evil glare, "he he, I mean yeah, 'course I remember you! We … uuuuh, used to play together uh… a lot right?

"Obviously." Confirmed Aria, "geez, I knew you were an idiot, but I didn't know you were that idiotic, idiotic enough to forget me… but that was to be expected right- besides, I can't even imagine a non-idiotic Gray." She added bluntly.

Once they were gone Aria then turned back to Juvia, "hey, I'll you some secrets plus some stories about kiddy Gray if you give … let's say one hundred jewels." Asked Aria, trying to make some quick money.

"What? YAY SURE! Juvia is so excited!" Juvia squealed.

"So, one hundred jewels tomorrow deal?"

"Got it." Juvia confirmed.

"Nice doing business with you, Miss Lokster." Aria said unemotionally, with money signs gleaming in her ever stoic eyes. _Great!_ Aria thought,_ quick and easy money!_

After that she made her way over to the bar to talk to Mira to see if she could stay at the guild's building for the night. "Don't worry, it's fine, you can stay with Elfman, Lisanna and me!"

"Or you can stay at Juvia's and Cana's place at Fairy Hills!" said a drooling Juvia- no doubt she wanted to hear some secrets and stories of little Gray!

Aria quickly thought up an excuse- as much as she needed money, she knew she couldn't lie and it would also give her time to, if she could, plant some false memories into Gray's soul. "No", she said simply to Juvia, "I'm going to need some time to recollect my thoughts, and with that drunken thing," her voice held fake disgust as she stabbed her finger at the direction of Cana, "I would't be able to tell you about you-know-what."

"Juvia is okay with that!"

Aria turned back to Mira, "Okay, do you have a spare set of keys." She asked stoically.

Mirajane sweat dropped, "O-one sec, Lisanna, Elfman! Can Aria-chan stay over at our place?" they just ignored her… seconds after she did her Satan Soul Take Over and literally threw them over. Mira turned round- expecting Aria to be shocked but she seemed unfazed, only staring blankly at her. "Aria-chan is staying over tonight, we're having a sleepover. My Aria-chan, you have such beautiful nails, we should have manicures when we get home."

"I know." She replied matter-of-factly.

"Lisanna, you're joining us too right? Right?" Mira asked hopefully, "the more the better." She grinned widely.

"Sure why not?" Lisanna agreed. Just as they were leaving Aria remembered that she had to use soul plane in Gray.

"I forgot something." She stated, then she turned around and headed back, but unbeknown to her, Lisanna had followed her.

"I'll go check on Aria-chan 'kay?"

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**i will probably delay chapter 4 as i have tests next week **


	4. Chapter 4

**hi, sorry for taking so long to update.**

**this is sort of a filler chapter...**

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**Chapter 4**

Aria looked around, Gray-luckily for her- was sleeping, silently she probed into his soul. Unaware that someone was watching her, she ruffled his hair, "don't fight Natsu too often, he still looks a bit wounded from you-know-what, you should take care of him."

_.

Lisanna had heard enough, turning on her heal to watch. When she arrived outside Aria was already there, "what took you so long?" asked an impatient Mira.

"Nothing." Lisanna said innocently.

Mira skipped ahead, Aria following stoically closely behind. When they reached the house, Elfman was already there. Aria inspected the house, she'd never it looked slightly different from the last time she was hear; it was always tidy before, despite the fact that the Strauss's house had round-about the same amount of items Natsu and Happy had, but mow it looked sort of bare, there were some pictures of the guild before and after Lucy came- some with Lisanna, Levy and Lucy. When Aria looked back to her hosts she realised that they were looking at her in a weird way. She quickly checked herself, and then she realized, "I like your house." She said in a bored tone, they were still looking at her expectantly, "thanks for letting me stay?" she sighed, "what."

"Aren't you going to ask who she is?" asked Lisanna suspiciously, "everyone –who isn't in Fairy Tail does that."

"No, why would I waste my breath on something like _that_, besides I already-" Aria mentally slapped herself. "It's not like it matters. Well since you brought it up, care to tell me about her?" she sighed.

"That's Lucy, she died just a few months ago… she died to save our lives." Mira sobbed.

"Saving people is a man!" declared Elfman.

Aria smiled for the first time that evening, a soft, genuine smile. "sorry," she looked away.

_Maybe she isn't so bad after all,_ Lisanna thought. Mira cooked up beef stew, roast potatoes and also her Fairy Tail themed flan for dinner. This, Aria had to admit, was better than the food at the spirit world. The only thing that stopped this from being the best meal ever was the uncomfortable, ere silence that was endured throughout the courses.

"Well," Mira said, trying to break the silence, "can you clear the table up Elf-nii chan? I promise to do it tomorrow."

"sure, Mira nee-chan." Elfman replied whilst rolling up his sleeve.

…

"Hey, so who did Gray like when he was little?" giggled Mira.

"Why're you interested?"

"We'll give you 10 jewels…" tried Lisanna, not wanting to answer guestions.

"Done, and no refunds."

Lisanna and Mira sweat dropped; "s-sure. Now spill." The handed it over, sighing.

"Nobody." She replied blankly, before sipping her mug of black coffee. Mira and Lisanna fell anime-style, "why're you on the floor?" Aria asked quizzically.

"We fell… and I want my money back!" exclaimed Lisanna.

"No. I _did_ say no refunds. And you _did_ agree." Aria replied casually. "Well," she yawned lazily, "I'm going to bed."

Lisanna blinked, then did a double take when she found the spot Aria was sitting at was now empty, it's previous occupant already a few metres ahead. "H-hey, wait up!" Lisanna called.

"Ah, g'night." Aria crawled into bed.

_,

Natsu's house

Natsu tossed and turned all night, no matter how long he closed his eyes for, he couldn't sleep. Why did that girl have Lucy's scent?

"Natsu, are you okay?" Happy moaned sleepily, "it's already two o clock."

Sorry, Happy did I wake you?"

"S'okay… I've been meaning to ask you but, why were you, Wendy and Gajeel acting so weird earlier? Especially you, did you guys smell something weird, you are dragon slayers after all?" Happy asked, concerned.

"It's the new kid."

"Aria-san? She's real powerful."

"Yeah, it's just that… she… has… well' you know…"

"No I don't." stated Happy.

"SHE HAS THE SAME SCENT AS _LUCY_ OKAY!" Natsu snapped.

"B-but that's not possible, everyone's scent is different- especially dragon slayers and their mates!"

"_THAT'S_ WHY WE WERE ACTING WEIRDLY, Gajeel's probably gonna keep it from Levy anyways."

"Aye, it's probably best that way." Happy agreed. Maybe you should ask her to be on our team, then we can sort it out- ask questions."

"This is the first time you've actually had a good idea…" chuckled Natsu, "but what about the others?

"Aye… hey! What about a mission with just Wendy, Charla, you, Gajeel, Pantherlilly and –of course- meeeee! Happy suggested.

"Sure! I'm all FIRED UP!"

Happy yawned, "night Natsu…" he curled up to sleep, mumbling about fish.

"Night Happy." After a few minutes Natsu fell asleep, it felt much better talking to someone about it- as well as getting a solution.

Natsu opened his eyes only to find his face just inches apart from Happy and as a result fell off his poor excuse of a 'bed'. When they arrived at the guild Aria was already there, he headed over to Gajeel and Wendy, "hey, I've got an idea; let's go on a mission together and invite 'Aria'. They nodded, wondering why they had not thought of it before.

"Hey! That was _my_ idea!" Happy complained as they approached Aria. She was currently braiding Mira's hair, Natsu and the others could hear Mira's voice from far away.

"Wow Aria-chan, you have such talented hands!" Mira complemented.

"When did I say you could call me 'Aria-chan'." Aria retorted back.

"Hey Aria!" Natsu interrupted, ignoring the daggers Mira was sending him.

"Ah… the unglamorous assistant I used yesterday." Aria said before continuing with Mira's hair.

"Y-yeah, me, Gajeel and Wendy were wondering whether you could come on a mission with us." He explained.

"Is it optional?"

"No not really…"

"Have you picked anything interesting?"

Natsu didn't reply, instead he just started mumbling something about 'being unprepared'.

"Why're you asking me- you obviously didn't think this through." She stated matter of factly. _Oh no! they've probably figured that something's off about my scent… _she thought.

"You should go with them." Mira encouraged after her hair was done, "Can I see my hair now?"

Aria lightly tossed Mira a mirror (A/N-no pun intended). "Tch- Whatever. As long as Plah can come to…"

"Sure!" Natsu exclaimed. Aria was about to go on her first mission- the catch? She didn't know what it was…


	5. Chapter 5

sorry i haven't updated in a while!

bumble bee

xx

* * *

**Chapter 5**

In the end they finally chose a mission; kill the monster that is kidnapping children in Clover town for 50,000J. Clover town was just four towns over- not far from what was left of Cait Shelter, although it wasn't far and only a two hour ride Natsu and Gajeel felt sick just thinking about it.

"Well, are we going or not. We've got a train to catch." Aria sighed stubbornly, literally slinging Natsu and Gajeel over her back. She just stared out the window on the train, _it's been a long time since I was last here, _she thought silently.

"We are now approaching Clover Town." The announcement rang loudly.

Fortunately, the client's house wasn't too far away and he had offered them accommodation. They stared at the door awkwardly, silently urging each other to ring the doorbell. Aria huffed- this wasn't going anywhere, "ugh, I'll ring it. You're wasting time and money."

Aria made her way towards the large pair of mahogany doors and pressed the gold plated doorbell.

DING DONG!

A large chubby man ushered them in, "Are you the Mages from Fairy Tail?" he demanded.

"So much for welcome," Aria muttered, "can't you see our insignias?" she raised cocked an eyebrow, "or are you blind?"

The man, however, ignored the comments from the rude girl, "I'm Jerlando Akralier, retired s-class mage- one of the strongest, bravest, cunning and handsome there is!" he boasted, "I defeated one of Zeref's minor creations, I was in a guild that was in the top ten in the Grand Magic Games one year not to mention that I-"

Gajeel cut him off, "yeah, yeah, we don't need yer entire life story." He snorted, jest tell us where that monster is- the sooner we get this done the better!"

They found out that the monster kidnapped girls and called himself Dallius, he lived in the mountains. Much to the frustration of the four fairies, Jerlando insisted that they got a good night's rest, before their journey tomorrow.

"We shouldn't be wasting our time here, the sooner we get this done- the better." Aria huffed, "maybe we should just steal the money, leave a note and kill the kidnapper." She stated.

Meanwhile the dragon slayers where all huddled up, seemingly ignoring the newest fairy, "this might be a chance to find out who Aria is!" Wendy excitedly declared.

Confused Natsu asked, "what d'you mean?"

"Well I was thinking that maybe we could find out anything else about her that she has in common with Lucy, not just her scent."

"Maybe she talks in her sleep!" suggested Gajeel, "I bet we'll find out lots of information if she does!"

Wendy face-palmed, "good idea but that's not really what I was thinking." She said, before adding "We could still give it a try though! Anyways, as I was saying, I'll talk and ask the questions, Gajeel can answer then and Natsu can… can…"

"What, what should I do," Natsu urged.

"Y-you can… um… just watch a-and eat fire- yeah, you just sit tight!" Wendy watched as Natsu's face fell, "i-it an important job, you know Lucy best out of us three so you can see how she reacts, ne." there was an awkward silence between the three of them, then Aria interrupted them.

"Are you done gossiping about me yet." She demanded critically.

"Wh-wh-what? How did you kn- I-I mean why would we be talking about you?" stuttered Wendy.

"Well, it _is_ hard to _not_ notice someone staring at you or pointing at you and- did I tell you that I have particularly good hearing."

"No, why're you bringing this up now," said the dense Natsu who was genuinely curious, then Aria gave him the 'are-you-serious' look, then he paused to think for a moment then his eyes widened in realization, and in return Aria rolled her eyes. "Oh."

"Dumbass," Aria said harshly.

* * *

When it was time to sleep the three dragon slayers decided to take shifts during the night, but by the end of it they _all_ fell asleep. Aria snickered quietly to herself, she guessed that since she was technically dead she could go on without sleep; she knew that she talked in her sleep though, after all it was her former celestial spirits that teased her about it.

Plah had decided to stay at 'home' or in the spirit world but had promised to be back once the mission was over. He also said that he would deliver letters to Layla, her mum, and Jude, her dad, when Lucy had died she obviously never got to deliver her letters but now it often occurred to her that she should have delivered the letters via spirit.

Peering to see if Natsu, Wendy and Gajeel were really asleep, then Aria jumped out a window and wrote some runes near the mountain where the monster/kidnapper was. Even if this was just a mission she couldn't take any risks, no, she couldn't lose_ him_ that was the reason she came back after all, she shuddered, remembering the dream she'd had. She knew it would be bending fate- I that was even possible- but she didn't care. When she climbed back in the room she placed a luck-charm on the dragon trio.

Soon, she saw the 'top' of the sun making the sky glow, she then crept to bed and pretended to sleep. Surprisingly, Gajeel was the first to wake, and then Wendy, soon Aria 'awoke', last was Natsu. The three dragon slayers were seemingly disappointed as they hadn't found anything different, other than the fact she was a late night sleeper.

"She's a lot more different from Lu-chan; Aria-san can probably stay up all night but Lu-chan liked to get her 'beauty- sleep'." Wendy said, disappointed. "Don't worry," she encouraged, "We still have the rest of the mission to-go, right?"

"Maybe she fights like Bu-"

"Why are you people so obsessed in knowing whether or not I'm like that Heartfilia girl, huh?" Asked Aria accusingly. "Isn't she _dead? _Do ya do this with all new Fairies, or is it just me? I'm pretty sure other people have died not just her- get over it. Sure, from what I've heard she's a pretty nice person so I don't think she'd be happy if she knew what you guys are doing. I mean, jeez let her rest in peace!_"_ Aria seethed in a cold, threatening voice.

Aria's sudden outburst caused Natsu to snap, "THEN WHY DO YOU SMELL LIKE LUCY?!"

_Uh oh…_ Aria thought, _I might of overdid it…!_ "Wh-what, you guys have been smelling me, are you perverts, paedophiles- wait even you Wendy!" Aria exclaimed mockingly.

"ANSWER. THE. DAMN. QUESTION. WHY. DO. YOU. SMELL. LIKE. LUCY?!"

"That's for me to know and you to find out!" she grinned back cheekily, before giving her best 'death-glare' to Wendy and Gajeel.

After breakfast Natsu uttered an apology to Aria for over-reacting, in return Aria mumbled one back although afterwards Natsu still wanted an explanation.

"I can't tell you, not yet anyways."

Natsu didn't probe any further after that.

It was already afternoon when they left, the door slammed shut behind them- they all hoped to be finished tonight- but it wasn't very likely. By the time they got there it was 4:30 pm, it seemed that finishing before the next day was a lost cause.

_Lucy…_, Natsu thought, _love you…_

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_thanx 4 reading..._

_have a virtual cookie! - (::)_


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